Hyderabad face BSNL in Moin-ud-dwalla opener

Hyderabad: Hosts Hyderabad Presidents XI will take on BSNL while another local outfit, Combined Districts, will clash with Railways in the All India Moin-ud-ddowla Gold Cup Cricket tournament beginning here on September 2.

Tripura will take on Goa and Jharkhand will face Assam in two other matches scheduled for tomorrow. Hyderabad Presidents XI, mostly comprising young players are expected to give BSNL a tough fight, while Combined Districts of Telangana have a daunting task when they face Railways.

Among the 20 teams taking part in this edition, 12 are state association teams and one is a foreign team, USA Colts. The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals. The final will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium from September 18 to 20.

The big guns in the tournament like Saurav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Y Venugopala Rao, Wasim Jaffar and Dinesh Mongia will be seen in action from the second round beginning on September 6.

The format of one of the country's oldest tournament, which began way back in 1931, has reverted to the original three-day affair after experimenting with limited-overs matches for a few years. There is no specific reason for this change except to give chances to the players to perform better in different formats.